Here’s a quick and easy charm pack quilt I came up with. It requires 1 Lil Rascals charm pack and 1 yard of brown Sock Monkey Texture fabric (with enough left over for binding). You can substitute any charm pack and any coordinating fabric for the sashing.
I’ll blog about marking and machine quilting it next week. Now I will explain how to make the quilt top.
First, select 41 of the 42 charm squares that comes in the charm pack (you can save the 42nd square to use as a label on the back).
Arrange 9 of the squares to make one 9 patch block. Repeat for a total of 4 blocks. The charms are precut 5 inch squares, so your 9 patch block should measure approximately 14″ unfinished.
Measure your block and cut 4 sashing pieces 5″ wide by your block measurement.
Make 2 rows like the picture at left. Sew a 9 patch block, sashing piece and another 9 patch block to make the top and bottom rows. Measure the width of this row (should be 32″). Cut 4 brown border strips 5″ by this measurement.
For the middle row, take 2 sashing pieces and sew on both sides of a charm square. Sew all 3 rows together to create the inner quilt. Press towards the brown sashing strips.
Sew two long border strips to either side of the quilt top, like the picture at right.
Finally, sew the 4 remaining charm squares to each side of the two remaining long border strips (picture lower right).
Add each border to the top and bottom to complete the quilt top.
The quilt top measures approximately 41 inches square. It’s a little too wide to use just one length of fabric for the backing. I pieced my backing so that I had an extra 4-5 inches around on all sides.
It requires about 3 yards if you want to use the same fabric for the entire backing, with some left over. With care, you could get away with using just one 1 1/2 yard piece for the backing, if it’s at least 42 to 44 inches wide, but that’s cutting it a little too close for my taste!
To learn about piecing a backing using two different fabrics, read my post about that here. You could also sew a few chunks of fabrics for the back, or piece together a layer cake for the backing and you’d have a double sided quilt!
Feel free to share this tutorial with your friends, and let them know to come visit my blog for more quilting tips, free patterns, and fun inspiration!
Click here for step 2 – basic machine quilting
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